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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Today's feature is Sarah from Narcoleptic in a Cupboard. Sarah began suffering from Narcolepsy as a young teen and was diagnosed at 24. I found reading about her and her disorder very interesting and she's so open, you can read about that HERE. Her quilt today is fabulous, love every bit of it! For Sarah this quilt was a lot of learning...all things I need to learn better myself too!! Anyway, I really found her blog very interesting and she has very unique projects, I'm off to look at Narcoleptic in a Cupboard again! :)

Wonderfully torturous Tranquility.

When I first saw there was going to be a quilt-along for the Single Girl quilt, I had never really used flickr much, I had never done a quilt-along, I had never seen the Single Girl quilt before, and still I thought “that sounds fun”. Famous last words huh?

So, I signed up, I got some fabrics, I ordered the pattern. Everything was fine. Then I got the pattern... Oh boy. To say I felt out of my depth would be a monumental understatement!

It took me 3 days just to cut out the ring sections!

I
cant remember just how many times the seam ripper came out when I was piecing
the curved sections... (another first for me!)

Putting
the top together took a couple of goes too I struggled getting the ring sections
to meet up properly....

Once
basted, I had the hand quilting challenge... I’d never hand quilted before
either. I really just didnt think about any of this when I signed up, did
I?!

The
hand quilting took me 3 months. Granted I wasnt doing it every single day,
there were the three times where I had to wait for the needle shaped hole in my
finger to heal up... (and that was with using a thimble!)

Eventually,
I got it done. Dear lord this was a tough quilt for me to make. Every single
process was something that was new to me, and none of them came easily. But boy
oh boy was I glad I made it. I learned so much, and with the help and
encouragement of the flickr group I was able to stick at it and trust I would
get it done. And of course I have the “single girl support group” to thank for
giving me the confidence to join in and chat to people on other groups too.
I’ve met so many great quilters, and funny, lovely ladies!

It’s
kinda cool huh? Another first, a quilt I made that I really liked! But what to
do with it? I would keep it, but I’m in danger of flooding this wee house with
quilts... I couldn't sell it. I could give it away, but the thought of parting
with it was almost, but not quite, as painful as the quilting had been! Then it
hit me. My dad. Dads birthday was coming up. If I was going to give up this
quilt, such an important quilt to me with so many lessons learned, more hours
spent on it than anything else I’ve ever done, something that took my blood,
sweat and tears (literally), than who better to have it?

He
loves it! Here it is in its new home, dads meditation room, pride of place,
with a new name too. Introducing.. “Tranquility”